If a child is taught something at an early age, whether good or bad, wise or ethical, the child grasps and learns that thing easily because that is the age of learning by seeing, listening, and imitating what they see in their surroundings. Most of the think stories for children are making them learn about the only story but in that story, there are characters, which are also that important so while reciting a story to a kid we should also consider that women and men both in the story are just characters and in reality, it should not be imitated.
Many fairy tales have the message that a woman needs to be saved by a prince to live happily ever after and don’t show empowered women making their way on their own. But women really don’t need that to rely on, the story can be just shown in some other perspective too so that kids while reading stories don’t take it too seriously in real life.
Cinderella’s character mostly relates to these times teen girls like, not liking for who she is and where she comes from, not supported by her stepmother, ridiculed by peer groups, etc. It’s not a great message to show that if they put on a slipper they instantly turn into a beautiful woman and then men will accept and want to be with her, the prince will marry a girl who fits that shoe, So back then also it was shown if you want to be accepted by a man you should fit in the things that he wants.
Fairy tales are an important and almost inevitable part of childhood, which is all the more reason why we must pay attention to them as adults. They contain both positive learnings and problematic ideas on issues like female agency, consent, and self-sacrifice.